But they come and go at will?

At will?

Yes.

Jesus. I cant answer your question. The only will they subtend would be something like Schopenhauer’s Will.

I was just trying to point out that it is unusual for patients to be comfortable with hallucinations. They usually understand that they represent some sort of disruption of reality and that can only be frightening to them.

Them.

Yes.

Well. I guess what I understand is that at the core of the world of the deranged is the realization that there is another world and that they are not a part of it. They see that little is required of their keepers and much of them.

Do you think that’s true?

No. But they do.

These beings that come to entertain you but they’re not very good at it. Entertain. Distract. What do you think it is that they’re supposed to be doing?

I dont know what it is that they’re supposed to be doing. It’s all lame beyond words.

You must have some notion of what it is that they want.

They want to do something with the world that you havent thought of. They want to set it at question.

Why would they?

Because that’s who they are. What they are. If you just wanted an affirmation of the world you wouldnt need to conjure up weird beings.

Is that the purpose of entertainment? If you can call it that. To raise doubts about the world?

Why not?

What else can you say about them? Do they cast a shadow? Can they enter a locked room?

They dont have any trouble putting in an appearance. It wouldnt occur to you to ask if a figure in a dream could cast a shadow.

No. I guess it wouldnt. But you say they’re not like figures in a dream.

No. And you might suppose that they devote a certain amount of energy just to appearing plausible. But that’s just a charade. A distraction.

From what?

We’re sort of back to square one. I suppose it’s true that the first duty of any hallucination is to appear real, but to attempt to emulate a reality in which your credentials have expired implies another agenda. To suit yourself up in this new world is at best but a preparation.

You called them hallucinations.

I’m just trying to live in your world.

Now I know you’re being facetious.

Do you really want to go into all this?

I’m not sure what all this is.

That there is little joy in the world is not just a view of things. Every benevolence is suspect. You finally figure out that the world does not have you in mind. It never did.

Most people manage to live out their allotted days in something other than a state of despair.

Yes. They do.

If you had to say something definitive about the world in a single sentence what would that sentence be?

It would be this: The world has created no living thing that it does not intend to destroy.